Danish zoo says it has no plans to kill second giraffe named Marius

Copenhagen: Animal lovers enraged by Copenhagen Zoo's decision to kill a giraffe last week could barely contain their anger when a second Danish zoo said it might put down another of the animals a few days later.

But they, and the giraffe, had a reprieve on Friday when Jyllands Park Zoo in western Denmark said it now had no such plans, for the immediate future at least.

Copenhagen Zoo's scientific director and other staff received death threats after their male giraffe was killed on Sunday last week to avoid inbreeding among the animals there. Days later Jyllands Park told journalists it might be about to receive a female giraffe, and might have to kill one of its males, to stop them fighting over the new arrival.

The first Marius was euthanased and fed to the lions to prevent inbreeding. Photo: AP

By a coincidence, both condemned animals were called Marius.

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In a statement posted on its Facebook page on Friday under the headline "problem solved", Jyllands Park said it had now heard it would not receive a female giraffe "any time soon".

"As a result of this we will of course keep both our (male) giraffes," the zoo said.

The zoo said that it never had any definite plans to move or kill the animal but had only answered questions from media based on a hypothetical situation.